


Pains

by Laurawrzz



Series: Weeds [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Doctor Whump, Drama, Gen, Hallucinations, Heart of the TARDIS, Hurt/Comfort, Poison, Series, Two Shot, Whump, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-23
Updated: 2013-11-24
Packaged: 2018-03-08 23:26:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3227468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurawrzz/pseuds/Laurawrzz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The weeds are still in the TARDIS, and the Doctor is lying useless in the infirmary. Rose takes it upon herself to kill the weeds, but straying too near the TARDIS Heart and its terrible effects may end up killing her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One

**Author's Note:**

> IMPORTANT: You MUST have read the first in this series, 'Weeds', to understand whadda heck is going on! :D

Rose snapped awake, and the first thing she did was cough chestily. She drew in a few deep, long breaths, finding to her great relief that she was able to get more air into her lungs, now. But as she drew what felt like her first breaths for days, she was hit by an incredible smell.

It smelt awful, pungent... In fact, the smell brought back a particularly bad memory of Mickey's flat after a bad takeaway curry he'd had. Then came sound – a there was a loud, slow, resounding bell ringing through her ears, seemingly drilling right into her brain like a pneumatic drill. Asides from that, there was also the sound of small, rapid gasps...

She opened her eyes, and rolled her head right.... And there was the Doctor lying next to her in a mess on the floor. He was shaking, gasping and sweating profusely – beads of it visible on his forehead. He was as white as a sheet, and suddenly it was so clear why it stank so much. His mouth and front were  _caked_  in a blue substance.

“Doctor...” she gasped, pushing herself up to scramble over to him on all fours, resting a hand on his chest. The beat of his dual hearts was slow and threaded... “Oh God, what did you do!?”

He didn't react in the slightest.

Rose struggled to her feet, and wasting no time she grabbed him under the armpits and started pulling him towards the infirmary. It took less than ten seconds before she was inside, not stopping for anything until she had him up on the examination table, a single limp blood-coated hand hanging down over the side.

Then she realised she had absolutely no idea what to do now.

She grabbed his shoulders and started shaking him erratically.

“Doctor!” she cried. “Wake up!”

Suddenly a screen flashed on to her right, drawing her attention to some text writing itself across it...

**Loading...**

**Loading complete.**

A holographic woman suddenly appeared on the screen, and gave Rose a gentle, reassuring smile that somehow seemed to slightly take the edge off of Rose's stress-filled world.

_“I am the emergency medical interference for this time capsule, TARDIS type 40, mark 3. It appears you need to perform an emergency procedure. What species is the procedure to be performed on?”_

“Time Lord!” Rose said quickly, still holding onto the Doctor's shoulders. “He's a Time Lord!”

_“Species confirmed, Time Lord. Scanning...”_

There was a brief pause, but even brief was far too long for Rose. “Hurry up!” she yelled, before suddenly jumping backwards about five feet when some sort of machine snapped into place above the Doctor, red lines tracing all over him. Then just as quickly as it had begun, they stopped.

 _“Scanning complete,”_ the woman confirmed.  _“The Time Lord patient is not a registered passenger on this time capsule.”_

“What!? How can...” She quickly stopped herself and got back to the matter in hand. “So!?”

_“The procedure must be approved by the lead pilot of this time capsule.”_

Her jaw dropped. “But he  _is_ the pilot!”

 _“If confirmation is not received within thirty seconds, your capsule will automatically be rerouted to a Gallifreyan medical facility,”_ the holographic woman continued, as calm as ever.

“Where's that!?”

_“The default location is the Gallifreyan Planetary Hospital on Gallifrey.”_

Her eyes widened even further. “But it's not there!” she yelled, frustrated. “It doesn't exist any more!”

The hologram didn't even seem to register her sentence.

“Isn't there anywhere else!?”

 _“No other hospitals are registered to be able to deal with Gallifreyan casualties,”_ she replied, that smile she was wearing quickly turning from reassuring to utterly mocking Rose and her situation.

“But it  _doesn't exist!!!”_ she shouted at the screen, utterly frustrated.

The hologram, once again, didn't seem to care she'd spoken.  _“Rerouting to commence in fifteen seconds.”_

“Then it's confirmed!” Rose yelled, knowing full well it wouldn't work but she had absolutely no idea what else to do. “The lead pilot confirms it! He's fine with it! Please!”

Nothing happened. The hologram just waited patiently in silence.

“You can't do this,” Rose begged, suddenly finding herself  _pleading_ with a machine. “He's a Time Lord, ain't that enough!?”

_“Rerouting to commence in five... four... three... two...”_

_“Confirmed,”_ a calm, deep voice suddenly came from behind Rose, and she whirled around to see a strange, tall dark-haired man in red robes. He was wearing a strange sort of clothing around his neck, balanced on his shoulders spread up around the man's head making him look a bit like a peacock. It was clear he was holographic, as seconds later he disappeared as quickly as he'd come, barely giving Rose any time for further thoughts.

 _“Confirmation received, clock commenced,”_ the woman said, still strikingly smooth and calm as a big red digital clock appeared on the corner of the screen, counting from zero up.  _“Will the person administering the emergency procedure please confirm name and species.”_

Rose barely understood what was going on, but assumed that meant her. “My name's Rose, I'm a human.”

_“Ident confirmed. Rose Tyler, human, 20-years-old. Hello, Rose.”_

“... Hi?” Rose croaked, still very baffled.

_“Deep scan of your patient is commencing. Stay calm, Rose.”_

Rose jumped back again as the red lines started again, tracing over the Doctor.

_“Rose, I am the emergency Tardis medical assistance, designed to help guide you as quickly and efficiently through the procedure as possible. I will be using terms you are familiar with by information accessed through your telepathic connection with the Tardis. Do not be alarmed if my words are your thoughts.”_

“Okay?!”

_“Injuries detected. Prioritising.... Prioritising complete. Rose, your patient appears to have ingested a severely poisonous compound. You will have to perform an advanced version of what you know as gastric lavage on him to evacuate the substance from his stomach before it is absorbed by his body.”_

“Gastric what?!” Rose cried, still holding onto the Doctor. “What do I do?”

 _“Remain calm, Rose,”_ the hologram persisted.  _“You may also know it as a stomach pump. But the advanced tools in this time capsule will make the process easier for you. First, you must locate the required equipment for the procedure.”_

The woman disappeared, and was replaced by five 3D objects spinning around on the screen. Some sort of strange gun with a thick, flat end, a tube, a metal thing like she'd seen on Casualty a few times, a tub of something and a metal pot.

_“Locate these objects. The registered location for these objects is the supply cupboard to your right.”_

“Okay,” she blurted out, darting to the cupboard. It felt like an eternity, but eventually she managed to locate all the objects and ran with them back to the Doctor.

_“Well done, Rose. The procedure is simple. First, open the tub and coat the tube in the substance. This will ensure the tube will go smoothly down your patient's throat. Have you done that?”_

“Yeah, yeah,” Rose said quickly.

_“Well done. Next, ensure your patient is lying flat on his back. Then, using the device you've seen on Casualty, pull forward your patient's tongue to open the throat.”_

“Okay, okay, I can do that,” she said quickly, following what the woman had said. She open the metal device and put it into the Doctor's mouth, pulling his tongue forward.

“ _Keeping the tongue forward, take the tube and guide it gently down your patient's throat until his lips meet the black ring marked on the tube.”_

“Right...” Rose breathed, taking the tube and pushing it into the Doctor's mouth. It was bizarre as the tube disappeared down his throat...

He suddenly began to unconsciously retch, coughing and choking with dribble coming up through the tube as suddenly he didn't seem to be able to breathe.

“He's choking!” she realised, making to pull it back out again.

_“Stop. He will not choke, Rose. As a Gallifreyan, he cannot asphyxiate. It will be uncomfortable for him, but he will not be harmed. Do you understand?”_

“Yes,” she said, wiping the sweat from her forehead with a blood-coated sleeve. “I'm sorry.”

_“Do not worry, you are doing well, Rose. Is the tube fully inserted?”_

“Yeah,” she croaked.

_“I can confirm the tube has reached the stomach. Now you can hang the end of the tube into the pot, placing it on a stable surface, then turn him onto his side. Then, pick up the gun-like object and hold it to his navel.”_

“Okay,” she breathed, and held her finger over the trigger. “What now?”

_“Do nothing yet, I need to explain this to you, Rose. You will need to pull the trigger in quick succession whilst moving the device straight upwards towards his neck. This should be rapid, pulling the trigger once each time it rests on his skin. The gun-like device will act like activated charcoal, drawing together the excess contents of his stomach and pushing it up to his mouth. This will cause the contents to eject through the tube and into the pot. You must keep repeating this process until the tube is clear. Do you understand, Rose?”_

“Yeah, okay,” she responded, focusing on her hands. “So I just move, shoot, move, shoot, yeah?”

_“Yes.”_

“Okay, can I go?”

_“Yes.”_

She did exactly what she was told, and the Doctor began to writhe beneath her, coughing and gargling. She tried desperately to ignore this, continuing to fire the gun, going up to his neck and repeating it from his stomach. As promised, the contents were spilling out into the pot like a tap on half until the tube was clear.

_“You are finished. Remove the tube carefully and dispose of it.”_

She slowly pulled the tube out of his throat, spit dribbling out of his mouth. She threw it into the disintegration bin and ran immediately back to him.

_“Check to see if he is responsive, Rose.”_

“Doctor,” she said quickly, shaking his shoulder. “Doctor, wake up!”

He didn't stir.

“He's not doin' anythin',” she told the hologram.

_“That's okay. Rose, step away.”_

She did without question and immediately the red lines started up again.

_“All hazardous substance has been evacuated from the stomach. Sensors detect massive trauma to the lower right leg and left hand, and damage to the optic nerve. I can take you through each treatment process, Rose.”_

* * *

 Rose was just checking his leg was straight in traction when he heard him moan, stirring back to consciousness. She took his healthy hand immediately, squeezing it to reassure him.

“Doctor?” she asked softly.

“Rose?” he whispered. “Where are we?”

“Infirmary,” she replied. “You were shivering and sweating so I dragged you to the infirmary and this hologram came on and told me what to do.”

“A what?” he asked, dazed.

“On the screen,” she clarified, pointing... Until she realised he was still blindfolded and quickly dropped her arm. “I had to do get the poison out of you, and fix your leg and stitch your hand. It told me how.”

“The emergency... medical assist?”

“Yeah, think so,” she said. “But your eyes...”

“Did you check them?”

“Not yet. But she said you had damage to the optic nerve and it was incurable...”

He groggily reached up to his eyes, scrabbling to removed the blindfold he still had on him. Rose reached up to help him, easing it away. Instantly his eyelids snapped shut.

“Too bright,” he moaned.

“Okay,” she said, and replaced the blindfold. “If you're okay, I'm gonna go.”

He snapped to attention. “What?”

“Someone needs to kill this weed,” she pointed out. “You can't go like this. I'm gonna go and get rid of it.”

“You can't!” he protested, waving his arms around desperately to try and find her.

“I'll be back really soon, okay?”

“Rose!” he cried, struggling to get out of the bed but nearly falling flat on his face. She looked at him there struggling to find her, and moved back to help him sit up again.

“Please, Doctor,” she practically begged, a hand on his cheek. “Just trust me, yeah?”

“I can't just sit here... I can't do that,” he said, shaking his head rapidly. “You know I can't do that.”

She sighed, brushing back the hair from her eyes. “Okay, look, we'll wait until you get a bit better, then we'll go together. Yeah?”

He nodded quickly. “Yes.”

“You know, that hologram said that you weren't the lead pilot... It tried to take us to Gallifrey and then this man appeared in a hologram and fixed it.”

The Doctor winced. “That was probably the previous owner.”

“Previous owner?” she echoed.

“I... I stole this Tardis. I never registered myself or her because she's Type 40, and they were being recalled at the time. I saved her. I didn't register her so they didn't sniff. I was protecting her.”

“Oh,” Rose muttered, still frowning. “But you can register yourself now, yeah? I nearly couldn't help you.”

He nodded. “Sorry... forgot,” he replied, a little sheepish.

She grinned. “Do you want some water?”

He nodded again. “Yes, please. Did you give me a stomach pump?”

“Yeah,” she replied, moving to the water dispenser.

“Feels like it,” he grunted, a hand resting on the front of his neck.

“Only got yourself to blame,” she pointed out, looking at the glass and sighing as she averted her gaze to the pack of pills she'd put on the table next to the dispenser, and popped one out. “What did you swallow?”

“The trigger reversal substance,” he told her. “I didn't know which one it was so I tasted it.”

“Ugh,” she muttered, and dropped the pill into the water. She covered the top with her palm to mute the sound.

“I  _was_ saving your life,” he pointed out as she moved back to him, taking his hand.

“I think I made up for it,” she replied, grinning. “Okay, try and sit up.”

He shuffled with his elbows, leaning up slightly as she guided the glass to his hands. She then helped him raise it to his lips, and he took a few deep gulps.

“Better?” she asked softly.

He nodded. “I never said thanks. Thank you.”

“You're welcome,” she replied. “Now just  _try_ and relax, yeah? Doctor's orders.”

He nodded, yawning slightly as she leant forward to pull up his sheets and adjust the pillows carefully. She then took his good hand, and pressed it to her chin as she gazed at him, and waited.

His descent was relatively short, his head lolling on the pillows until she saw his chest begin to rise and fall in perfect rhythm.

“Doctor?” she whispered. He didn't reply. So she let go of his hand, got up and went to the door, unconsciously scratching at her rapidly blistering arm as she left to go and kill a weed.

 


	2. Part Two

Rose took the transmat down, right to the area the weeds had ambushed them before.

Avoiding the area they had gone before she began to descend, and with every step the urge to turn and run the other way increased tenfold. But she couldn't. That would be cowardly. So she continued onwards, going down and down the many levels.

The weeds were unending – going down for as long as she was going down – to the point where she thought they might actually have got in the Heart itself. They seemed to be everywhere at any rate.

Then, to her complete surprise, the Doctor appeared right in front of her grinning widely.

She stumbled back, alarmed. “Doctor?”

“Hello!” he said enthusiastically, waving.

“But...” her eyes traced down to his leg – fine. His hand was fine too, and his eyes were there, deep browns staring at her with their usual boyish charm... _“What?”_

“Isn't it obvious?” the Doctor asked seriously.

“No?”

“You're _clearly_ hallucinating,” the Doctor said casually, checking his nails.

Rose frowned. “Why?” she asked, and then her face fell as she realised, as soon as the word had passed her lips. She looked down at her arm and pulled back the sleeve, just to confirm it. Her arm was blistered from her wrist to her elbow. “... I'm still poisoned.”

“Correctamundo!” the Doctor enthused, beaming at her with a double thumbs up.

“How?” she croaked, staring at him.

“Well, asides from the fact he was as blind as a bat and couldn't even properly administer the injection to you, what you got wasn't even a poison sac. It was just a nutrient sac. Silly Doctor. I suppose you can't blame him. That was a tense few minutes.”

Rose swallowed, closing her eyes briefly before opening them again, focusing on the corridor ahead. Then she began to walk.

“Oh? Carrying on?” the Doctor wondered.

“I'll never get the antidote in time. I just need to get rid of the weed. For him.”

“How noble of you,” the Doctor mused, rolling his eyes.

She stopped again, whirling around to face him. “Can you stop talking out of his mouth?” she demanded, angry.

“What would you rather I be doing with his mouth?” he asked vaguely, a small, sly grin on his face.

“Shut up,” she snapped, and began to walk again.

“Touchy subject?” he wondered, skipping to catch up with her and eventually stopping right in front of her.

She stopped again, glaring at him. “Go away.”

“No.”

She breathed out an angry sigh through gritted teeth, and didn't even bother to reply. She walked straight through him.

The Doctor looked down at himself where she'd walked through him, and turned to look after her.

“Hey!” he exclaimed, before following.

* * *

Back in the infirmary, the Doctor woke up.

“Rose?” he called drowsily. “Rose?”

There was no reply.

“Rose? Are you there?”

He frowned, groaning as he reached up to his blindfold. He then pulled it away, and eased open his eyes.

Everything was bright – but not as bright as it had been. He blinked a few times, but the world around him was _very_ blurry.

“Rose?” he tried again, looking to his right. He couldn't see her outline, but he could see the glass of water next to his bed.

The water was white.

Instantly he knew what had happened.

“Rose!” he yelled again, sitting up. She'd actually drugged him. Drugged him and gone. How could he not have tasted it?

He pulled his leg out of traction and swung around to sit sideways on the bed. The head-rush disabled him for a few seconds until he gathered together his wits and forced himself to stand up. The resulting head-rush nearly made him fall over, but he managed to steady himself on the next bed until he stood straight up on wobbly feet.

Through some sort of strange inner willpower, he left for the door and went straight to the transmat to follow her.

* * *

Eventually, Rose and her hallucinated companion reached the end of a corridor. It almost looked like a completely dead end, at least until Rose realised it had a tiny opening in the wall in amongst some branches.

She immediately whipped off her jacket and discarded it on the floor. She stepped boldly forward towards the gap.

“Seriously?” the hallucination wondered.

Rose didn't reply, just reached forward to pull back some greenery, and without any further words she stepped into the tunnel.

Almost immediately the tunnel swelled around her, and contracted quite forcefully, crushing her where she stood. All the air was forced out of her lungs as she was squeezed, pain shooting through her arms and her ribs with her entire body held rigid...

The tunnel expanded again, but she was too stunned to move. She managed to get in two steps before the tunnel contracted once more, and this time something broke inside her. She gasped out an expletive as the tunnel expanded once again, and she began to stumble towards to end...

She made it out, and collapsed to the ground. Pain shot through her side and she gasped out a cry, holding it and trying to stay absolutely rigid for the fear of even _more_ pain...

“Weren't expecting that, were you?”

She looked up, tears in her eyes, to meet the hallucinated Doctor staring down at her with that ever-present smile.

“Go away,” she grunted out breathily, struggling to her knees with her hands still pressed to her agonising ribs. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes but she was desperately trying to hold them back.

“Don't cry,” the Doctor said mockingly.

Immediately the tears were released; pure tears of pain coursing down her cheeks. She couldn't take the upwards motion for any longer and instead just fell down again to lie on the floor.

“Aren't you worried?” the hallucinated Doctor asked seriously.

“What?” she breathed out.

“You're dying. Doesn't that _scare_ you?”

She swallowed, looking up her hallucination with tearful eyes. “No.”

“Why not?”

“The D-Doctor,” she stuttered out.

The hallucination burst out laughing. “Oh, is he going to save you, then? The man you've just drugged and left upstairs? The blind one that can't walk and nearly diced his hand up? _He's_ going to save you?” he asked mockingly.

“Of c- _course_ he'll...save me,” she sobbed. “But I'm s-saving him. I'm n-not scared, cos... cos I'm doin' the r-right th-thing.”

She got up, wiping back her tears with her sleeve and clearing her throat. Still with a hand clutched around her ribs, she stepped forward towards the access shaft in the area she had emerged.

* * *

The Doctor continued through the corridors, limping as fast as the pain would let him. He kept calling Rose's name, but his voice just seem to echo out into nothing. His sight was still incredibly blurry, but he could see outlines of things in vague shapes. So despite the brightness of the light, he kept them open, and kept going.

It was a good twenty minutes of walking until he found it – a jacket, lying abandoned next to a hole in the wall.

He picked up the jacket. His sight may have been almost non-existent, but it was Rose's, there was absolutely no doubt about that.

He looked back up at the apparent tunnel, his brow furrowing. He didn't want to be right about this one. He wanted to be very wrong... Because that looked incredibly like an artery. And there was the thing about arteries... they had a nasty habit of contracting.

Suddenly he realised he didn't have a choice. He'd have to run...

So he did.

* * *

The hallucination narrowed his eyes, gazing at her for a moment as she pulled open the shaft, and moved into place to descend.

“Might not want to go this way,” the hallucinated Doctor suddenly said, frowning down at her.

“Like I'm g-gonna l-listen to... t'you,” she replied haughtily, resting a foot on a rung below.

“Really?” the Doctor asked, surprised. “How about your Mum?”

Rose snapped up her head to find her hallucination morphing straight into her mother, tracksuit and all, standing there with her hands on her hips and looking down at her disapprovingly. “Rose Marion Tyler!” she chastised, her finger waving in the air.

She looked away again, rolling her eyes. “You're v-very funny.”

“I like to think so,” the hallucination replied, back to the Doctor's form.

“Get outta h-him,” she sighed, not even looking at him.

“I quite like it,” the hallucination admitted, running a hand down his torso.

“Oi, you... you're my h-hallucination so I d-decide,” she pointed out. “Be s-someone else!”

“Fine,” the hallucination replied, and immediately morphed into Ronald McDonald. “How's that?”

She sighed.

“What?” he asked seriously, changing to the Queen. “For Queen and country?” she enquired.

Rose didn't reply, just reached forward to take a rung.

“Seriously,” the hallucination said, changing back into the Doctor. “Don't go that way.”

“Too l-late,” Rose snapped back, and climbed onto the ladder. She took a few steps downwards, just a few, and suddenly there was a tearing sound as a rung snapped beneath her right hand. She yelped in alarm and reached up for the next rung, but the rung beneath her left hand snapped too, perfectly coinciding with the ones breaking underneath her feet. Suddenly she was falling, down the access shaft, down, down and further down into the blackness below, her scream fading to nothing.

The hallucinated Doctor peered over the edge, and sighed.

“Told you not to go that way,” he said, and disappeared in the blink of an eye as Rose Tyler hit the surface below.

* * *

The Doctor emerged on the other side of the artery, collapsing into a heap on the floor. Thank fully he'd managed to get through in one feel swoop, but now his leg was screaming with pain to the degree he was shaking – almost crying.

He needed to get his breath back, so he took slow, steady pants for a good few minutes until he was sure he had enough air back in his lungs and a minimal amount of pain in his leg to get his brain to operate normally again. It was around the time his face stopped burning with exertion did he realised that his face was wet.

He pulled back to look at the place his head had been resting.

His sight was still blurry, but it was quite clearly a small puddle of blood.

“Rose,” he gasped, pushing himself up in record speed with his eyes as wide as dinner plates. “Rose!” he yelled, looking frantically around. “ROSE!”

No answer, but his voice seemed to be echoing. It drew his eyes downwards to a hole in the floor... A hole, which he realised on closer inspection, was an access shaft leading downwards.

“Rose!” he called, but there was no answer, and suddenly a rising swell of utter dread began to fill him... Something had happened. He was absolutely sure of it.

He had to go down the shaft.

He reached out to the ladder inside the shaft with his good hand, a little surprised to find the top few rungs were missing. So he grabbed the next ones down, placed his feet with the weight on his left leg, and began to descend.

At least, until the rungs broke.

His left foot went first, instantly putting all pressure on his mangled right leg. He shrieked in pain before that one broke, and then his right hand went as well.

He launched out to grab the top of the shaft, just about managing to get his bad hand to clutch the edge. More pain erupted in his hand and he cried out, struggling to raise his right hand to meet it.

He managed to find it, his fingernails digging into the edge in desperation – but already he could feel his fingers were slipping. His legs dangled uselessly below him, unable to get any sort of hold with his feet. He was going to fall...

The ledge crumbled to dust beneath his fingers, and he began to plummet downwards. His head snapped down as his arms flew out, trying to grab _anything_ to slow his fall. He couldn't, and now he could see the floor – well, part of it. Most of it was taken up with a vague shape..

It was Rose's body, lying right where he was going to land.

He cried out loud and desperately tried to twist around, just about managing to avoid her by landing directly on his battered right leg, inches from her back.

Pain shoot through it like instant fire, and he immediately blacked out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TBC in 'Hearts'...


End file.
